Thursday, May 23, 2013

I haven't posted much lately. Been doing a lot of reading. Currently enjoying Joyce Johnson's The Voice is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac. Jack's Book of Dreams is my current Keroucian (Kerouawhackian?) adventure. Also working my way through The Wisdom of the Vedas by J.C. Chatterji (to help me better understand where Alan Watts, who I've been listening to extensively, is coming from). When I bought the latter at Barnes & Noble the young man checking me out said, "Good for you. This is a great book . . . ," and proceeded to school me on other good Hindu resources. Knowledgeable guy. I still think I want to work there and just be around books and book lovers all day. Ten minutes after I got hired the company would abandon brick-and-mortar stores - that's my fear anyway.

Reading Johnson's biography has me wanting to read more of what Jack read. I tried Proust and failed (yawn). Maybe Saroyan, or Wolfe, or Celine, or Spengler?

Too many books, too little time . . . .

One thing's for sure because of the latter realization: I'm not wasting my time gutting through something that doesn't hold my attention.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

I'm in receipt of a new expanded version of Poems Retrieved by Frank O'Hara, published by City Lights. Once I finish reading it, I'll post a review here on The Daily Beat.

In the meantime, readers may want to note that our hero Jack Kerouac had an "interesting" interaction with O'Hara at a poetry reading in 1959. Jonny Metro posted about it here. Poems Retrieved was edited by Don Allen, who edited Kerouac's Good Blonde & Others.

City Lights information about Frank O'Hara:

Among the most significant post-war American poets, Frank O'Hara grew up in Grafton, MA, graduating from Harvard in 1950. After earning an MA at Michigan in 1951, O’Hara moved to New York, where he began working for the Museum of Modern Art and writing for Art News. By 1960, he was named Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions at MOMA. Along with John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, James Schuyler, and Barbara Guest, he is considered an original member of the New York School. City Lights published O'Hara's Lunch Poems in our Pocket Poets Series (#19) in 1964. He died in 1966.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Click here for an article where a "top novelist has asked her fans to redesign classic novels as if they were being marketed at women in protest at the 'girly' imagery publishers use on book covers for women authors." Above is the revisioning of Jack Kerouac's On the Road.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Today felt like a lucky day, I received my bonus check. I said to myself, "What next?" Wrote 1000-words more on chapter, good definitive ones. The remainder hangs over my happy conscience. Things are swinging in me . . .*

Jack is talking about his G.I. Bill check and work on his first published novel, The Town and the City. Even when he was writing his novels he also kept a journal and always had something with him to write with (note what's sticking out of his pocket above).

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

As our regular readers no doubt know, poet Gary Snyder (above) was represented in Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums as Japhy Ryder. Today is Gary's birthday (he is 83) and The Daily Beat wishes him a happy one! On Facebook today someone called him a "wilderness essayist." He might appreciate that (definitely more than "Beat poet," an eponym he eschews).

In honor of Gary's birthday, let's read some of his poetry (click here). If you follow this link and haven't been to Poets.org before, do some looking around. It's a great resource.

Jack Kerouac

About the Author

Rick Dale is a Jack Kerouac enthusiast who lives with his partner, Crystal, and Karma the cat in the capital city of Maine. The Beat Handbook, available below, is his first book. His second and subsequent books reside in his brain for the time being....

Buy The Beat Handbook

Reviews of The Beat Handbook

Gerald Nicosia, author of the acclaimed Kerouac biography Memory Babe, said The Beat Handbook is "full of Jack's heart."

Jared Randall, author of the excellent book of poetry, Apocryphal Road Code, said this about The Beat Handbook: "Sometimes a book comes along at just the right time. In my wandering pack of experiences, I find they often do. Enter The Beat Handbook by Rick Dale."

Kenneth Morris, Kerouacian extraordinaire, said this:"I just finished reading Rick Dale's beautiful utterance and call to action of Kerouac mind-set and zen sensibilities. It made me laugh and reflect on my own life and road I have naturally grooved into after absorbing the Kerouac canon. The road less traveled always had my name on it. And that has made all the difference. The Beat Handbook 100 Days of Kerouactions reaffirms the attitudes and ideology that made the Beats and Kerouac the important men of ideas that America (and the world) thirsted for, needed, and swallowed whole. Beautiful, absorbing, Top Ten whipsmart from my articulate, tender-hearted friend and fellow traveler. Highly recommended."